Marijuana legal: Thailand Become First Asian Country To Legalize Marijuana

Thailand legalized the cultivation of Marijuana for use in food and drinks on June 9 and became the first country in Asian subcontinent to do so. The objective behind the decision is to enhance the farming and tourism sector of the nation. The use of Marijuana for smoking is still prohibited.

The Public Health Minister of Thailand highlighted plans to distribute a million seedlings to the farmers, in order to encourage them to cultivate this cash crop. Stringent extraction concentration is decided by the authorities, where sale of cannabis extracts comprising more than 0.2% of its psycho-active ingredient will be against law. The law breakers can be put behind bars for up to 3 months or have to bear fines up to 25,000 baht, or roughly Rs 56,278.

Growers interested in cultivating Cannabis will have to get their names registered on ‘PlookGanja,’ an application owned by the government of Thailand. As per the reports from the health ministry around 1 lakh people have already got their names registered on the app. Due to heavy traffic,the platform had also reportedly crashed,as it noticed a crowd of 3.2 crore in just two days of the announcement. This led to problems in accessing or signing on the application. A parallel gateway named "plookganjaweb" was then issued by the government so as to solve this trouble.

Along with cannabis, the government also approved around 1,181 cosmetic and food products that will add 15 billion baht, or roughly Rs 3.4 crore to the country's economy.

Thailand, before the desicion, was known for a local variety of marijuana called Thai Stick, which got its name from the process it was cultivated. The same became the origin for other strains which are now cultivated around the globe. The country is also popular for its medical tourism industry.